Ive been a fanatic WoW player for years after being obsessed with Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3. The first time playing WoW and seeing this world in person was mind bending. I had to stop though because life. I cannot do the MMO player experience and playing it a little every day or week did not work for me. So I stopped playing WoW.
I did not stop playing games though. Like majority of gamers I switched to purely single player games without the hassle of coordinating with other people. Even lately WoW itself has become more and more catering to single players though not fully of course.
Lately I have this idea of Blizzard packaging WoW into a purely single player game. They can add group members that are NPCs and controlled by the player in groups and raids with relevant optimizations but keeping everything else as is apart from the whole marketplace economy maybe which can react to player buys sells like the real servers since they have decades of market behavioral data.
The idea is to have a single game packaged in an offline single player experience to allow private and full exploration of the lore and locations and events of this magnificent universe Blizzard has created. I think they can literally charge anything even sell expansions separately and even cosmetics and people will purchase it all. Personally I used to purchase anything and everything but afterwards I know that I have no time I stopped even getting the new expansions. But single player version will be more permanent people would buy even if they dont actively play since they can go back to it anytime unlike the MMO that takes so much investment to return and stay.
I think the overlap between the people who would play this and actively paying and playing the game now is a very small minority. A huge number of people who avoid WoW actually want to play but due to its MMO aspects evade getting into it. A single player WoW where you wont miss things and play it with your own time frame would be a massive hit. And include it as a package with older titles Warcraft Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 even Steam would melt down.
What do you guys think of this? What would you suggest to make this idea better or is this a rival to the current game and makes no sense to even think about?
A singleplayer WoW would become boring really quick.
A singleplayer Warcraft RPG won’t. And as far as rumors and “leaks” go, already in the planning stage for 2028 release. IF those rumors is to believed.
And thats good? People should join games that are part of its target audiance.
Its the same as saying “a lot of people avoid counter strike actually want to play it but dont want to shoot at others”.
Now, in before. I get screamed at by lone wolf players here. I am NOT saying that you shouldn’t be able to play wow solo if you like but I am saying that WoW should present itself as an MMO game at its core… not a single player game with “optional multiplayer”.
It already does and has done since day 1. You are actively punished for playing WoW solo. You can’t get the best items and rewards for playing delves.
just wanna say this: when i played morrowind and the next one, obsidian something.. and the one with the dragons… i felt what was missing was duo and trio.
i always thought that. why not make it so you can play this campaign with your best bud?
harder to make? … that much harder, really? yea well, would’ve been something.
after like 15 years, or more idk, the dragon game community created a multiplayer mod.
yea, maybe it’s easier then… idk. way too late for me to try it.
that was what i wanted to say about this.
oh yea and this: there was an xbox game dungeons and dragons that you could duo. was solid.
but it was a hack and slash so ok.. not the same ofc.
I don’t agree personally. Maybe for people who are actively playing now, like yourself, or those who truly enjoy multiplayer and have the time, connections and personality for it. But I know countless WoW players who share the exact same feelings I have about lack of time and how annoying it is to treat guild obligations like a second job. Plus, MMOs are dying, with declining player numbers across the board as a trend. I think a single player WoW would be a huge hit if done properly, without cutting out any content.
Regarding a new Warcraft RPG, I don’t trust Blizzard to create anything new when they even failed to deliver a proper Warcraft 3 remaster. I just want the least amount of change possible, only WoW as it is, but in single-player mode.
I don’t suggest any changes to the existing WoW, only a new product, like Skyrim, but WoW-SP for the silent majority who still love WoW but are afraid to go back. I feel like an addict. I still listen to its soundtracks and imagine myself playing it. I’m that in love with the game, but it’s too much to invest time in an MMO these days, especially WoW. I simply wish there was an option for people like me other than jumping back in and playing single player like a second class citizen in an MMORPG, always missing out because I didn’t have time to grind something or coordinate with others for a raid.
IMO the SP idea is insanely good. I’d play it for years and years, no joke. I only care about completing every quest on both sides, exploring every zone, collecting every mount, every piece of gear, every collectible, and if possible achievement hunting as well. Literally everything!
I’ve only played for 1-2 months this decade, so it’s worse for them economically I think. There are so many more people who have stopped playing MMOs, and the number is increasing every day according to the stats. The more people leave, the worse the P2W and weird monetization mechanics are going to be sadly.
I don’t think a ton of people would leave the main game for the SP version, since they’ve invested so much already, both in time and money, and have social circles and guilds etc. Current users who like MMOs, social features or PVP won’t budge. This would only target the non-MMO players who are almost entirely off the game by this point. Better to sell them 1 game than 0 games no?
I don’t think elder scrolls games are good examples to compare with WoW as a single player experience. I believe there aren’t any truly good single player games that capture what makes WoW special. That’s why a single player WoW could dominate the market so easily, it would be a unique game that combines the best of both worlds. A huge number of non-MMO players would jump right in.
I did suggest optimizing every mechanic for SP, but assuming your NPC members aren’t heavily involved in boss mechanics and you’re the only one who needs to handle them, I don’t think it would be super difficult. I soloed all raids and dungeons up to Legion, and only 1–2 bosses gave me any real trouble in terms of mechanics. So structurally, they’re very doable solo. Just add NPCs around you to heal and support you, but it is you who will still be doing all the important work, and if you die, you restart from a saved state instead of being resurrected by your NPC buddies who handled the boss easily. The paradigm will shift as a SP game rather than a live MMO.
m+ is for you then, you dont need guilds, you can put your key and choose who you invite.
In 12.1 youll also get mythic track gear in vault for heroic raid, so again you don’t need guild.
Soloing dungeons or raids is not an option, shouldn’t be, and won’t be. For this you have delves and open world content
any content that should be allowed with bots/ AI are normal dungeons/ raid finder nothing beyond this, If you have so little time you dont need top tier gear for competing anyway.
There are many Single Player Projects on private servers and I always wondered if Blizzard have letting get away a source of income. Those projects are basically private servers tuned for one player with bots and you have it from Vanilla to Legion. The quality it is basically the one that could have a private server of those expansion wich is great from anything until WOTLK, maybe Cataclysm, but after that it usually not so good (single player or not).
I am not againts the ide of Blizzard making those things, but unlike other private servers they doesn’t seem to get much attention so it is unlikely. They could be an option to have those single player versions as some form of stand alone game separated from the main game. Instead of having abandoned content sell it again for people to play solo, which will have a little more challenge than killing everything on one shot.
I enjoyed WoW despite its multiplayer hassle really. I enjoy the world exploration, stories and collectibles, and how solid and fun the core game is. Dealing with other humans always felt like another challenge to overcome rather than a plus for me. I explained before how hard it has become for me to sink consistent time into games, which is why I’ve completely rejected MMOs and most multiplayer games. The same thing has been happening to a ton of people, hence the overall decline in MMO player counts.
I really love the gameplay and lore of WoW itself. No idea why you need to speak for me in such a manner? I want WoW and to play it single player. In the end, if this does not happen, I’ll create the conditions in a private server, which I don’t really want to do. Some official product doing that would be fantastic. I might enjoy a different Warcraft RPG if done well, but WoW is there and I want that to be available for me without the hassle as a potential customer.
And it shouldn’t be some overpowered one-shotting everything solo game. I was imagining something like SWTOR, it has great mechanics to play solo without cheesing it too much, giving you an NPC follower to heal and everything. You can follow the story completely alone. Something like that, but making the whole game available in single player.
To make it clear, I will never return to MMO gaming. I’ll never purchase another expansion or game time on WoW, so I am a 100% gone user suggesting a game idea that I’d pay thousands of dollars for if created. I am not trying to hate anything or anyone, just sharing this idea that I find really easy for a huge company like Blizzard to implement, one that might make them crazy money and bring me pure bliss.
That is not, however, something wrong with the game’s design.
Literally more than 99.9% of the game is outright soloable. The only parts that are not soloable are:
Current strictly 5man content
Raids of the current and last expansion at any difficulty, and raids of 2 expansions behind on Mythic difficulty. And possibly some specific bosses from even earlier that have multiplayer mechanics. [Yes, I know that there are players who manage to solo raids of the current expansion, but that is not considered achievable for us mortals]
PvP
Game secrets that require multiple players, like the 5man mount.
All other content can be completed solo, not just attempted. Delves, Ritual Sites, Prey, the entire Overworld, Follower Dungeons, Story Mode in Raids etc., all those are soloable things.